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China news tagged with: Gongmeng (15)

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NGOs Tread Lightly on China’s Turf
Asia Times looks at the state of NGOs in China, in the wake of the shutdown of Gongmeng legal assistance group:
It could be argued that Gongmeng was an isolated case of government interference in China’s NGOs, but a report on disaster relief fund management by Deng Guosheng, associate professor of Tsinghua University’s School of Public Management and Policy, tells a different story
According to Deng’s study, by November 2008, public donations to help disaster relief in the aftermath of the Sichuan earthquake in May last year, many made through NGOs, totaled some 65.252 billion yuan (US$9.5 billion) – excluding donations in kind. However, about 58% of the total (37.9 billion yuan) went to various government agencies, 36% went to government-designated Red Cross organizations, charities and foundations and only 5.9% ended up with local foundations less affiliated to the government.
Deng found that part of the 36% that went to government-designated organizations in fact eventually went to government departments. Some specifically-designated donations were even ultimately channeled to government units for “the purpose of overall planning”. Altogether, according to the report, more than 80% of total relief donations ultimately ended up in government accounts.
Thus, ironically, while Beijing encourages NGOs to play a bigger role in disaster relief (which is non-political), government departments and officials have found ways to keep NGO hands off relief funds donated by the public.
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- September 11, 2009 1:19 PM
Qian Gang: China’s Guerrilla Debate over “Illegal Organizations”
Being deemed an “illegal organization” in China can result in a quick shuttering of a group by authorities. Gongmeng (Open Constitution Initiative), Xu Zhiyong’s legal defense organization is a case in point. Yet what if an “illegal organization” is run by the authorities themselves? The story can be quite different, as Qian Gang reports on China Media Project:
Under strict censorship controls, the vast majority of Chinese journalists are suffocated with a silent fury over such trumped up allegations. But this week instead we’ve seen the opposite — media aggressively opening fire on a so-called “illegal organization.”
On August 26, the Beijing News reported that Zhao Yang (赵阳), a member of the City Administrative Department of Nanjing’s Xuanwu District – this is the office that runs the local brigades of non-police ‘city inspectors’ charged with keeping public order in China’s urban neighborhoods – had been charged with organizing an online “national joint session of city administrative department heads.” Zhao had dared to hold an event without proper registration and in the name of a social group, so this amounted to the act of “illegal organization.”
The reporter following up on the story came across this organization’s statutes. They discovered that the organization had a founding chairman, an honorary chairman, a rotating chairmanship, a managing director, a deputy director, an executive council and so on. It had set up an administrative headquarters, and even had a membership fee system in place. It had already held three national conferences, had issued awards and conferred titles. It had decided on national standards for city inspector identification. For all intents and purposes, it was the national guild for city inspectors in China.
The report caused an uproar. For the authorities to see “illegal organizations” as thorns in their side, that was one thing. But it seemed like a great big joke for government officials like city administrative department heads to be participating in such organizations. The media followed up on the story and found that the organization behind these joint sessions was in fact a private company, which was scooping up all of the funds. A private company boss, in other words, had been toying with city administrative department heads across the country, offering public relations and crisis management services to address the poor public image of city inspectors.
Read more about the “city inspectors,” or “chengguan” via CDT.
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- September 4, 2009 10:49 AM
Chinese Activists Released
From Reuters:
A pioneering Chinese legal rights advocate, who had been detained for more than three weeks and accused of tax evasion, was released on Sunday but might still face prosecution, he and his lawyers said.
Xu Zhiyong, co-founder of the Open Constitution Initiative, or Gongmeng, had been out of contact since he was seized from his home by security officials at dawn on July 29.
Xu, surrounded by friends and supporters after his release, said: “I think this outcome was the result of pressuring and urging from many friends and many quarters. We’ll have to see what it means, and we can’t entirely exclude the possibility of prosecution. But if that happens, I’ll defend myself vigorously.”
Zhou Ze, one of Xu’s attorneys, said the investigation might continue.
Update: The New York Times reports that Xu’s colleague Zhuang Lu was also released, as was Uighur writer Ilham Tohti:
Chinese authorities unexpectedly released three political activists from detention on Sunday, including one whose case had drawn worldwide attention.
Officials offered no reason for the releases, but they occurred one day after the new American ambassador to China, the former Utah governor Jon M. Huntsman Jr., arrived in Beijing.
[...] Beijing authorities also released Ilham Tohti, an economist, Internet activist and ethnic Uighur who had been detained after deadly riots erupted in western Xinjiang region in early July.
Mr. Tohti, 39, ran a Web site called Uighur Online, a popular forum for ethnic Uighurs, who live mostly in Xinjiang, to discuss issues important to them. After the July rioting, Xinjiang’s governor, Nur Bekri, charged that the site had helped foment the violence by spreading rumors.
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- August 23, 2009 3:04 AM
Assistant To Pioneering Chinese Rights Lawyer ‘Disappears’
From guardian.co.uk:
Almost no one in China has heard of Zhuang Lu, which is hardly surprising. Plainly dressed and introverted, the 27-year-old office assistant completed her mundane daily tasks – booking tickets, paying bills – with minimum fuss. Then, three weeks ago, she disappeared.
Family and colleagues believe she is being held in a detention house in Beijing. Like her boss Xu Zhiyong, a prominent human rights lawyer who has fought a string of high-profile cases, she was taken from her home at dawn on 29 July by security officials. But unlike Xu’s detention, which has made headlines internationally, her disappearance has gone unnoticed outside her immediate circle.
“Information about her has always been out. But because the main focus has been on Xu, not many people have noticed her case,” said their colleague Yang Huawei.
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- August 21, 2009 7:14 PM
Xu Zhiyong Charged Amid Crackdown
The New York Times reports that Xu Zhiyong has been formally charged with tax evasion:
Mr. Xu, 36, is a founder of the Open Constitution Initiative, known in Chinese as Gongmeng, a nonprofit group that often has taken on high-profile cases involving ordinary citizens’ civil rights. The government shut down the organization’s legal center on July 17, three days after accusing it of tax violations, and the police seized Mr. Xu on July 29.
In an interview on Tuesday, his attorney, Zhou Ze, said Mr. Xu was formally charged on Aug. 12. Mr. Xu could face seven years in prison if he is tried and convicted. The prosecutors now must seek an indictment, but that is widely considered a formality.
The government’s main accusation is that Mr. Xu’s group failed to pay taxes on a $100,000 grant from Yale that was earmarked for the legal center. But human-rights advocates and foreign political analysts are agreed that the charges are politically inspired, part of what seems to be a growing effort by security officials to shut down independent advocacy and especially advocacy that is supported with foreign funds.
See also “Why have they taken citizen Xu?” from Chinayouren:
There has been some speculation on the net – especially on Chinese official media – about whether Xu’s NGO really had taxes unpaid and why. This discussion is completely beside the point, unless the Global Times explains that it is normal to be abducted 3 weeks for a first-time, minor tax offense. No, the real reason why Xu has been arrested can be understood in this Xinhua article issued last week:
In the national Justice conference the Minister of Justice Wu Aiying required: […] lawyers in our country must support the party leaders, adhere to the scientific development concept as a guide, uphold socialism with Chinese characteristics, ensure the correct political direction in lawyer’s work.
The message is simple, you do things with the party or against the party. There is no middle ground, and trying to find it by studying hard and following the law simply will not do. Because the party leaders are above the law.
And a post called “Sodom” by Leung Man-tao, translated by Danwei:
My friend Xu Zhiyuan (许志远) also wrote a deeply moving essay, “Our Generation,” (“我们这个时代”) in which he wrote that two years ago Xu Zhiyong had spiritedly said to him: “The 2008 Olympics will bring along with it a huge opportunity for reform. When the whole world has its eyes on Beijing, political authority will be restrained, and different grassroots organizations will use the opportunity to expand civil society.” I am not unfamiliar with this speech because I have expressed similar opinions: I was once full of hope for a China that had experienced the Wenchuan earthquake and the Beijing Olympics. Whenever a foreign journalist finds me to discuss China’s dark aspects, I would remind them at the end to always look on the bright side of things, just as I once reminded you to do.
And that brighter side included Xu Zhiyong and his partners at Gongmeng, and the rising group of rights lawyers, and the countless other warm-hearted people who want to do good things. But this country’s corruption, this social coldness, it’s as if everything is maintained through the tacit understanding of 1.3 billion people and certain lies. Even so, there are still many people who give up their time and go hither and thither for other people’s children, such as Tan Zuoren; and there are also many people willing to sacrifice the life that they could have enjoyed, instead choosing to knock doors for their fellows in trouble, such as Xu Zhiyong. I even optimistically put the government into this category, because at least they once let the rays of light sway in the murkiness. Perhaps they too will be swept up with it, and when they put in a vote by their foot, they’ll see how important the existence of good people is. If Heaven permits that you’re able to find someone good in Sodom.
Also, see “Xu Zhiyong and What His Detention Means for Rule of Law in China” by Elizabeth Lynch on Huffington Post and an article from the Guardian. Read more about Xu Zhiyong and Gongmeng, via CDT.
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- August 18, 2009 9:13 AM
Open Constitution Intiative Not Allowed to Pay Fines
After being fined for allegedly violating tax laws, Xu Zhiyong’s Gongmeng (Open Constitution Initiative) has solicited donations from the public to pay the fines. However, authorities have frozen the organization’s bank accounts, making it impossible for them to pay the required fines, according to the Chinese Human Rights Defenders. A blogger who claims to be a college student somewhere in western China has written an open letter (in English) to President Obama asking him to support the release of Xu Zhiyong:
Days ago, OCI lawyers went to tax office to pay the fine.
To astonish everyone of us, officials decided that they’re not going accept it! In their defense, they don’t accept it when they don’t have corporate representative present, who is Xu Zhiyong, who can’t be present because police confined him.
I’m not an expert on law, I’m just an ordinary citizen, yet even an ordinary citizen can tell injustice from justice, arbitrary government behavior from law enforcement.
As if they haven’t had their fun, the administration put Sichuan activist Tan Zuoren [on trial] just yesterday, during which all defendant witnesses have been arrested or even beaten by police on their way to the courthouse, and a great number of journalists got harassed or confined.
Where is justice? Where is law? Where is human right?
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- August 13, 2009 9:50 AM
Baby Milk Powder Victims Lose Legal Proxy
Global Times published a lengthy and largely sympathetic article looking at the legal charges against Xu Zhiyong’s Gongmeng (Open Constitution Initiative) group and the plight of NGOs in China today:
What happened to the Open Constitution Initiative has been widely discussed by fellow domestic non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in China.
[...] Some scholars and domestic NGO leaders showed sympathy for the organization, saying Xu had no other choice. It’s extremely difficult to register as an NGO, according to them.
Yu Jianrong, a researcher at the Rural Development Institute, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, stated in an article: “The identity dilemma for the Open Constitution Initiative is a tragedy for our society.”
[...] There were 386,916 official and unofficial NGOs registered with the Ministry of Civil Affairs by the end of 2007. That number only accounts for NGOs registered at civil affairs bureaus across the country. A far larger number of NGOs are either registered at local administrations for industry and commerce or not registered at all, according to Lu.
The Beijing Yirenping Center belongs to the larger group. It was visited by a police officer and two plainclothes officers from the Cultural Market Administrative Law Enforcement Office of Beijing on July 29. The officers said they received a report that the center was involved in publishing without a license. They searched the center and confiscated more than 90 copies of China’s Anti-Discrimination Legal Action Newsletter.
Lu explained to them that printing documents like fliers and newsletters is a major task of NGOs. Otherwise they would not be able to publicize relevant laws and information to the public.
The newsletters were published in small numbers and given out free at seminars, not public places. Therefore they should not be taken as a publication.
Read all of CDT’s coverage of Gongmeng and Xu Zhiyong.
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- August 11, 2009 8:57 PM
China Lawyer Who Fought Unfair Arrest is Arrested (Updated)
The Australian and the Los Angeles Times both report on the work of Xu Zhiyong and his recent arrest. From the L.A. Times:
Xu’s law firm was one of the few in China willing to represent the parents of the nearly 300,000 children sickened and the six who died last year as a result of dangerous milk additives.
Since its founding in 2003, the firm, also known as Gongmeng, has not shied away from sensitive topics. It challenged China’s secret detention centers, the so-called black jails, after a 27-year-old graphic designer who was arrested for failing to carry his identification card died in custody. Xu represented an editor of the hard-hitting newspaper Southern Metropolis Daily who was arrested in 2004 on what were widely seen as politically motivated bribery charges.
This summer, Xu’s firm joined the chorus of voices opposing a requirement that all computers sold in China come preinstalled with software that would filter out pornographic or controversial content.
But Xu is by no means a dissident, preferring to work within a system he has hoped to improve, not overthrow.
And from the Australian:
“I’m prepared for the worst to happen,” the activist Beijing lawyer, 38, told The Australian only days before he was arrested. “I have no fear.”
He was prepared for such an event after his well-known but politically risky legal-aid group Open Constitution Initiative, also known as Gongmeng, had been shut down on July 17 after a morning raid by Tax Department officials.
Dr Xu said his aim was to protect the rights of all civilians and especially those who protected the dignity of law and constitution of China.
Now a growing number of non-government organisations who, like OCI, operate with the assistance of foreign funding are being harassed.
Journalist Susan Jakes also writes about Xu, whom she has known since 2004, for China Beat.
Update: The Chinese Law Prof blog has posted more links about this case, including the original sanctioning decision from the State Tax Administration.
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- August 6, 2009 8:42 PM
China Snares NGOs with Foreign Funding
The Christian Science Monitor writes about the recent crackdown on Gongmeng and Yirenping:
Taken together, the raids appear part of a tightening of controls on critical voices in the run-up to Oct. 1, the 60th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China. The two NGOs are among a growing number here using the law to hold authorities to account on issues such as food safety, patient rights, and illegal detention.
But they share another common thread: Both received grants from American and other foreign donors. The tax fine for Open Constitution Initiative, the group headed by Mr. Xu, was assessed largely on a donation from Yale Law School. Xu, a lawyer and elected legislator, is being detained on suspicion of tax evasion, according to an OCI official.
The harassment of these and other foreign-funded NGOs in Beijing has raised fears of a Russian-style squeeze on civil society. [...]
An alternate view in Beijing is that the groups targeted had pushed too aggressively into forbidden political zones, setting off a reaction. NGO workers and experts on civil society say the investigations into taxes and licenses are a smokescreen for a clampdown on legal activism, including the recent disbarring of 20 civil rights lawyers in Beijing.
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- August 4, 2009 8:58 PM
Xu Zhiyong: Featured in Mr. Fashion
While civil rights lawyer Xu Zhiyong is being held for tax evasion, he is featured in the August issue of the Beijing publication Mr. Fashion 《时尚先生》(the Chinese version of Esquire).* The theme of this issue is “Chinese Dream”
The magazine includes the following quote from Xu Zhiyong:
Xu Zhiyong’s Chinese Dream:
“我希望我们是个自由幸福的国家。每个人不需要违背良心，只要靠自己的才能和品德就可以找到合适的位置；一个简单而幸福的社会，人性的善得到最大的张扬，恶得到最大的抑制；诚实、信用、友爱、互助将成为我们生活的常态，没有那么多烦恼和愤怒，每一个人脸上是纯真的笑容。”
“I wish our country could be a free and happy one. Every citizen need not go against their conscience and can find their own place by their virtue and talents; a simple and happy society, where the goodness of humanity is expanded to the maximum, and the evilness of humanity is constrained to the maximum; honesty, trust, kindness, and helping each other are everyday occurences in life; there is not so much anger and anxiety, a pure smile on everyone’s face.”

Also from AP:
A leading Chinese legal activist detained by authorities last week has been accused of tax evasion, his brother said Tuesday.
Xu Zhiyong, a prominent legal scholar who co-founded the Gongmeng legal aid organization, was taken from his Beijing home around 5 a.m. last Wednesday by police. At the time, it was unclear why he was being held.
On Tuesday, his brother Xu Zhihong told The Associated Press that officials from the Beijing University of Post and Telecommunications, where Xu Zhiyong taught, said they were notified that the scholar was being detained for tax evasion.
Below see a solicitation from Xu’s Gongmeng (Open Constitution Initiative) asking the public for donations to cover their fine. Bank information is included at the end:
Recipient: Beijing Gongmeng Consultants, LLC
Bank: China Everbright Bank, Main Branch
Account number: 35080188000016762
Contact telephone: 010-62111675
Donors should mark their deposits as “donation.”

* Note: CDT edited this post due to a previous error which stated that Xu Zhiyong was on the cover of Mr. Fashion. His photo was in fact featured inside the issue.
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- August 4, 2009 3:30 AM
Qian Gang: Reading Political Signs in the Fate of Gongmeng
Qian Gang, a former senior Chinese journalist and co-director of China Media Project of the Hong Kong University writes the following essay, translated by David Bandurski:
I accept the argument for gradual political reform. The CCP bears substantial historical burdens, and citizens must become more mature and engaged, and if political reform leapt straight to core changes to the system, this might be too hasty. Working toward the development of civil society, and protecting the basic rights of citizens, might be an effective way to move forward in a steady manner. But senior leaders in the CCP remain coy about civil society development. The term “civil society” is not a sensitive one in China, and party theorists have generally treated it as a positive factor, and sometimes even actively advocated it. Strangely, though, party leaders have never used the term in speeches or official documents.
If NGOs are cravenly obedient, they might continue in China without incident. But if, like Gongmeng, they work determinedly toward democracy, rule of law and social justice, making their presence felt in major legal cases, they will find opposition from the authorities.
Steadily through the years news has emerged from the mainland about NGOs being harassed and shut down. They have pressed ahead through a political minefield, one terrible explosion following another. In this sense, actions against NGOs have been unexceptional occurrences. But the Gongmeng affair has andcome at time when we are again hearing language from the leadership about stability being the overriding priority, and we must therefore pay close attention.
It is chilling indeed to see an NGO to be targeted in such a way. The party now seems to regard even the most moderate forces of change as a scourge on its leadership. And the only explanation for this can be that hardline, extreme elements within the party are making their influence felt. These are dangerous signs!
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- July 31, 2009 12:46 PM
China Daily: Legal Help Group Told to Pack Up（With Video)
Reporting on the shuttering of a Beijing-based legal assistance group, Gongmeng (Open Constitution Initiative), this China Daily article, written by Zhu Zhe and Cui Xiaohuo, shows clear sympathy to the case by highlighting lawyer Xu Zhiyong’s quote:
More than a dozen officials of Beijing’s civil affairs bureau, which oversees civil groups in the capital, visited the center’s office in west Beijing on Friday morning and ordered it to shut down. The officials, carrying a legal closure notice, seized some files and computers, too, the center said.
The move comes two days after the Beijing tax authorities sent a formal notice to the center, imposing a hefty fine of 1.42 million yuan ($207,847) for having evaded taxes on funds received from overseas.
Xu Zhiyong, the center’s legal representative and an outspoken lawyer, said: “The bureau has no legal right to order a closure The research center has always been a division of the company that is registered with the authorities. There is no legal proof to show our group has not been registered properly.”
Beijing’s civil affairs and taxation bureaus, and the municipal office of the State taxation administration refused to provide information on the center on Friday.
Also, the following video clips document the above story, and also show some of the Gongmeng lawyers being interviewed by foreign and Hong Kong reporters, from Boxun.com:
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Xu Zhiyong issued a statement about the fine, posted in full by the Chinese Law Prof Blog and partially translated by the Time China Blog:
The $208,000 penalty might mean nothing to many companies. But for us, it is cruel and evil. It’s not just a punishment against us, it is punishing the children poisoned by milk powder, the kids of migrant workers, the property owners bullied by developers, and those petitioners who tirelessly demand justice… it is a punishment against thousands of the disadvantaged who are the most needy for help. This punishment is utterly devoid of conscience.
Read more about the recent crackdown on China’s human rights lawyers via CDT.
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- July 18, 2009 10:50 AM
China Shuts Down Legal Center, Revokes Licenses
From AP:
Beijing officials shut down a legal research center led by activist lawyers Friday, while China revoked the licenses of more than 50 lawyers, many known for their human rights cases.
The moves appear to be a new government push to oversee Chinese activist lawyers, who run the risk of being detained, harassed, attacked and threatened with disbarment for their work. China is also preparing for the communist state’s 60th anniversary on Oct. 1 — a particularly sensitive period when dissent is not tolerated.
About 20 officials from Beijing’s Civil Affairs Bureau showed up Friday morning at the offices of the Gongmeng rights group’s legal research center and confiscated computers and other equipment, said office manager Tian Qizhuang. They also questioned researchers and other employees on the nature of their work.
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- July 17, 2009 2:48 AM
Report Says Valid Grievances at Root of Tibet Unrest
From New York Times:
A group of prominent Chinese lawyers and legal scholars have released a research report arguing that the Tibetan riots and protests of March 2008 were rooted in legitimate grievances brought about by failed government policies — and not through a plot of the Dalai Lama, the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader.
The lengthy paper is the result of interviews conducted over a month in two Tibetan regions. It represents the first independent investigation into the causes of the widespread protests, which the Chinese government harshly suppressed. It blamed the Dalai Lama and other Tibetan exiles in Dharamsala for the unrest.
The government has quashed the expression of any dissenting opinions on the causes of the protests, which spread quickly across western China. The research paper was quietly posted last month on Chinese Web sites, and an English translation was released this week by the International Campaign for Tibet, an advocacy group based in Washington.
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- June 5, 2009 9:25 PM
Chinese Think Tank Investigation Report of 3.14 Incident in Tibet
From foolsmountain blog:
Chinese think-tank (公盟法律研究中心/Beijing Gongmeng Consulting Co., Ltd. ) established by Beijing University law professors, and joined by several Beijing economics professors. Following the unrest and demonstrations in Tibet which started Mach 10th, 2009, they decided to see for themselves what was really happening in Tibet by visiting Lhasa, the capital of Tibet, and Labrang, outside Tibet Autonomous Region.
Their findings are astonishing. They find that a new Tibetan aristocracy has taken over power. This aristocracy is even worse than the old Tibetan aristocracy. In the old system the aristocracy was reliant on some sort of accord and agreement with the people, since they were dependent on the people to pay taxes. The new aristocracy get all their funding directly for Beijing (Central government) due to “stability” reasons, and thus they do not have any incentive to care about the well-being of Tibetans.
They show how the new aristocracy cover up their own shortcomings in governance and lack of qualifications by pointing fingers at foreign forces and the Dalai Lama. This new aristocracy came to power in the cultural revolution. In other parts of China, this type of unqualified leadership was purged in the 80s, but in Tibet (due to their absolute loyality to Beijing), they were kept in power, up untill today.
They point to specific educational policy problems and find that the younger generation of Tibetans who grew up in a “liberated” Tibet has stronger Tibetan national identity than the elder generation.
The report can be found here (in Chinese).
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- May 20, 2009 10:12 PM